From The Archives: Being Elche

Elche, back in the big time... and loving it

One of La Liga’s fascinating stories is Elche.

Founded in 1923, Elche Club de Fútbol is one of the country’s historic clubs and is making its return to the Primera División after 24 years bouncing around Spain’s lower divisions.

So far, so okay for Los Franjiverdes.

Apart from Barcelona and Espanyol, Elche is allowing the least shots at goal in the league, they have won their last two matches and they look primed for a Sunday match-up against unpredictable Real Betis.

Of course, the Alicante club still remains favourites for the drop but, if nothing else, Los Franjiverdes have given themselves hope they can achieve the dream of staying up. And, for spenders of just €50,000 in the transfer window, that would be a worthy achievement.

Elche, Segunda División champions last season, are fascinating in many ways.

At each home game there is a standing ovation in the 12th minute to celebrate their top-flight return. They are home to the only English player playing in Europe’s top five leagues outside England – little known youngster Charlie l’Anson – and, although Elche consistently allowed few attempts at their goals all season, they only managed their first Liga win after seven matches.

That last point may be explained by Elche’s relative lack of quality and some bad luck, notably in their last-second loss to Real Madrid.

It also takes time to adapt.

Nine players arrived in the off-season as coach Fran Escribá strived to assemble a squad capable of coping with the step up to the Primera. By and large Escribá has succeeded, putting together a team of journeymen with plenty of top-flight experience while also preserving Elche’s full-blooded fervour – only Sevilla has collected more cards this season.

So, even if Elche may struggle this season, clearly it will not be for a lack of trying. They are determined to make the most of moment in the sunshine and, after 24 years of La Liga exile, their passionate Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero would demand no less.

Cards

	Yellow cards	Red cards
Sevilla	30	1
Elche	28	1
Rayo Vallecano	22	3
Real Betis	27	0
Almeria	21	2

Defensive strength

Elche’s strength is their defence.

They have a well-drilled defensive unit and although they have conceded 11 goals, three came in their season opener at Rayo Vallecano.

Shots conceded per game

Barcelona	9
Espanyol	9.4
Elche	9.8
Atletico	10.1
Villarreal	10.8

Elche only allows 9.8 shots per game, the third best rate in the league.

Thumbs up to that defence!
Elche's Ghanaian striker Richmond Boakye

While shots conceded per game isn’t an exact science, it does indicate a team’s defensive attitude, at least. For example, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal feature alongside Elche in this metric and they have La Liga’s best defences having conceded six, six and seven goals respectively.

What hampers Elche – as with most newly-promoted teams – is their relatively lower levels of quality.

For example, Real Madrid allows 12 shots on goal per game. But, because they have a better-quality goalkeeper in Diego Lopez, Real has only conceded nine goals. Similarly, Malaga, which allows 11.8 shots per game, has only conceded eight goals which may be down to Willy Caballero, one of the league’s top keepers.

Elche’s keeper Manu Herrera isn’t in the same class and Cristiano Ronaldo’s freekick goal in Real’s 2-1 win at the Martinez Valero was an example.

What is clear, however, is Elche doesn’t allow opponents easy passage into their penalty area.

Elche has committed the least defensive errors this season and their defensive line is so organised, with players having a good understanding of when to push up or drop off, opponents are often forced into long range efforts.

Defensive errors

	Mistakes leading to goals	Total defensive errors
Elche	0	1
Granada	0	2
Barcelona	0	2
Atletico Madrid	1	2

Goals conceded inside the box

Atletico Madrid	5
Barcelona	6
Granada	6
Malaga	6
Villarreal	7
Elche	8

This defensive strength is a carry-over from last season when Elche led the Segunda from start to finish on the back of a stingy rearguard.

In total, Los Franjiverdes kept 20 clean sheets. 15 of their 22 victories were by a single goal. On eight occasions they won 1-0 and they played to nine goalless draws.

Elche's Jose Mourinho...
Fran Escriba

It’s a credit to Escribá that Elche has managed to maintain this solidity such has been the personnel overhaul they have obviously had to undergo in order to compete. David Lombán has been brought in from Barcelona B, Alberto Botía recruited from Sevilla and right-back Ionat Sapunaru was signed from Real Zaragoza to compete with Damian Suarez. The only regular remaining from last season’s back four is left-back Edu Albacar.

Regardless, Elche has kept the same fundamentals, and as is usual with solid defensive sides, defence isn’t just down to the back four. Their formation features two hard-working holding midfielders, usually Ruben Perez and Carlos Sanchez, and as a team Elche press and swarm the opposition.

It requires a lot of energy, though. Against Real Sociedad they took an early lead and overwhelmed their visitors for an hour. However, the intensity dropped and Sociedad came away with a 1-1 draw after dominating the final exchanges.

Such energy output on the defensive end might leave little in reserve for offence.

Lack of goals

Elche’s attack is an area of concern.

They lack goals. They lack genuine pace. They lack the invention and finishing prowess to trouble defences. At times they have looked ponderous (no team spends more time in the middle third) resulting in Elche having to settle for long range shots while four of their eight goals have come from set-pieces.

It is not a new problem.

Even though Elche were winners of the Segunda last season, their total of 54 goals in 42 games was the lowest in the top ten and their top-scorer Ferran Corominas scored just 12 goals.

Elche attempted to remedy this by signing Manu del Moral from Sevilla, but he is yet to get off the mark and his backups, such as young Ghanaian Richmond Boayke, are yet to be polished options.

Elche does create occasions offensively. They love to get the ball out wide where they have two promising, complementary wingers. Carles Gil is a skilful young talent and he averages an impressive 2.1 key passes and 2.4 dribbles per game (both 11th in La Liga) while Fidel Chaves is more direct and has already provided two assists. But, their attack has to improve.

Rising Star, Carles Gil

It is the only blot on Escribá’s fine work at Elche because, in truth, they do tick several other boxes. Their resolve, for one, has been seen – whether it be scoring a last-kick equaliser at Almeria or bouncing back from an upsetting loss to Madrid to win two straight – and it is why Elche, overall, has a positive platform to build on.

Attacking stats

Metric	Total	Rank in La Liga
Shots per game	12	14th
Shots on target per game	4.3	11th
Goals per game	1	=12th
Conversion rate	8%	=13th

Shot zones

	Outside of the box (%)	18-yards box (%)	6-yards box (%)
Levante	53	41	6
Elche	50	45	5
Rayo Vallecano	49	45	6
Malaga	49	42	10
Celta Vigo	48	52	0

Action zones

	Middle (%)	Own half (%)	Opposition half (%)
Barcelona	46	20	35
Granada	46	29	25
Elche	46	28	27
Real Madrid	45	24	31
Getafe	45	29	27

Elche’s effect on the relegation picture

Elche’s exploits obviously affect La Liga’s relegation forecasts; they will not be the pushovers generally supposed before the season started.

According to BSports’ La Liga season projections, Elche had a 31.4% probability of being relegated (only Celta Vigo, Osasuna and Almeria had worse odds). http://www.bsports.com/projectedtableslaliga. However, Los Franjiverdes’ form only further muddies the waters in a league that is always congested in the bottom half.

Over the past five seasons, the gap between the team finishing tenth and 18th, the final relegation spot, has been 7.8 points.

Points tally for sides finishing 10th, 18th and 20th over the past five seasons in La Liga

Season	10th	18th (relegation)	20th
12-13	47	36	34
11-12	49	41	27
10-11	47	43	30
09-10	47	36	34
08-09	47	42	30

Stop-nonsons...
Elche defender Alberto Botia is key to their survival hopes

Already it is difficult to speculate which teams will go down. Elche’s fellow Primera virgins, Villarreal, are fourth. The other promoted side, Almeria, may be bottom but they have played beautifully and, if every Liga match had finished on 80 minutes instead of 90, they would be sixth, a point off the Champions League places.

This puts pressure on other teams. Osasuna has again made a slow start to the season, Valladolid is struggling to score and only eight points separate the bottom side from eighth-placed Espanyol.

Of course, there is still plenty of time for Elche’s doom predictions to come true, the season is long and unforgiving but on the evidence of their opening eight games Los Franjiverdes’ could be here to stay.

They have the basics covered and enthusiastic Elche is here to make the most of its time at the big party after a quarter century away.

Originally written for BSports StatsInsights on October 18, 2013 - https://www.bsports.com/statsinsights/football/la-liga-column-elche